Apple Music Gets Its First Branded Channel From Burberry

Apple and Burberry, the British fashion retailer, are teaming up to bring the first branded channel to Apple’s music streaming service. Burberry’s channel will go live within Apple Music’s new “Curators” section, offering live performance videos from British artists, both established and new ones, says a report from The New York Times.

Apple Music entering next stage

In 2010, the fashion firm started a Burberry Acoustic series with the intent of positioning itself as a lifestyle brand by taking help from the independent British music scene. This new channel will simply act as an extension of the series. Many exclusive videos will be featured on Burberry’s Apple Music channel, including live performances from several British artists at the Burberry Women’s wear show scheduled for Sept. 21 in London.

It’s a good move from Apple considering its streaming service will enter the next stage soon. The company’s free three-month trial period will end this month. Now Apple will have a better idea of who is willing to subscribe to its single subscription plan priced at $9.99 or the family plan for $14.99. Apple claims that presently the service has more than 11 million registered users. Spotify, the well-established rival for Apple Music, said that it had 20 million paid users and 75 million total users for its music service when it counted last.

A smart move to make its services unique

What makes the partnership noteworthy is the fact that Apple is working with Burberry for the first time since it hired the retailer’s chief executive, Angela Ahrendts, in 2013. Speculations on Apple working with Burberry have been going around since the iPhone firm hired Ahrendts. The rumors picked up steam with the launch of the Apple Watch as the fashion focus of the company became clearer. Whether Ahrendts had anything to do with Apple Music’s Burberry channel is not very clear for now.

A partnership with Burberry will surely help Apple in differentiating its music service from Spotify and other competitors. Previously, Apple introduced Connect, a kind of in-app social network used by musicians for posting songs and personal updates that directly reach their fans, to make its services unique. Apple also launched a non-stop international radio station featuring top DJs from around the world called Beats 1. It includes special sets from artists like Drake and Pharrell.